Poker Industry Reacts

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On Sunday night, the finale of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice Season 2 saw comedy icon Joan Rivers defeat World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Annie Duke in a complex task featuring a silent auction prior to a performance of Cirque du Soleil’s Wintuk. On Monday, the poker industry reacted to the decision by real estate mogul and show host Donald Trump.

On the online poker community PocketFives.com, the mood was mixed. Many of poker’s faithful sided with Duke, while others noted that Rivers won the show’s featured task. One PocketFiver noted, “Joan did win the final task. Standard TV entertainment. At least some charities benefit.” In fact, Rivers’ charity (God’s Love We Deliver) and Duke’s charity (Refugees International) earned over $1.2 million combined from the reality series. They will also experience residual exposure from Celebrity Apprentice in the future. On the finale, Celebrity Apprentice Season 1 winner Piers Morgan boasted that his charity, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, was able to construct a $60 million wing at its offices by virtue of the publicity on popular reality program.

Other poker players took exception to the terms used by Rivers and her daughter, Melissa, to describe poker players during the season, which lasted 11 episodes. The Rivers family labeled Duke a “whore,” “pit viper,” and “Nazi” and called poker players “trash.” Duke compared Rivers to a “cancer” in a battle of words. One PocketFives.com poster noted, “Annie deserved to win. And I believe there are a LOT of poker players (who also dabble in the world of business) that may want to b**** slap Joan and Melissa sometime… borderline slanderous statements may come back to bite her.”

Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu weighed in on the outcome of NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice. In a blog posted on Full Contact Poker, Negreanu noted, “Going into the last task, it was pretty clear that Annie was a huge favorite to win. Of the five criteria, she had one of them in the bag- fund raising.” Negreanu revealed that Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, donated $100,000 during the silent auction. Ultimate Bet’s Phil Hellmuth told Poker News Daily that he contributed $80,000. In total, the event raised $460,000, which was triple the take of Rivers’ gala. Negreanu questioned Duke selecting ally and Playboy Playmate of the Year Brande Roderick with her first pick: “She could have picked Brande last, as Joan did. I was surprised to see this obvious mistake. Seriously, it was a major tactical error. Herschel ended up being a rock star on the challenge.” The elder Rivers selected her daughter with her third and final pick, knowing that Duke would not draft Melissa Rivers to her team.

In the final boardroom, which played out in front of a live studio audience in New York City, the two finalists from Season 1, Morgan and country music star Trace Adkins, were asked for their opinion on who should be the next Celebrity Apprentice. Both favored Rivers, with Morgan claiming that she deserved to win after taking down three of the five criteria on the final task. Adkins’ answer was more cryptic; the singer merely said that Rivers “had that charitable thing.” Negreanu hypothesized, “His vote, and this is all speculation, I think had a little bit to do with the charity chosen. That’s just a total guess on my part, but I think with him being a full-blooded American, he preferred a charity that would benefit people in the U.S.” Duke was playing for Refugees International, an organization that she works closely with as part of Ante Up for Africa.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack extended his congratulations to Duke even though she did not win the reality program’s second celebrity installment. In his Twitter feed, Pollack commented, “Proud of [Duke] 4 an incredible season on C.A. + representing the poker community w/smarts, style + grace! U r our champion + hero!”

The Celebrity Apprentice will return in early 2010 for Season 3, the ninth installment of the show overall.

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Poker Million and Late Night Poker Qualifiers

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Recently, Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker room, introduced qualifiers for two highly popular television shows: Poker Million and Late Night Poker. The site is also in the midst of its 12th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS), which concludes in one week.

Poker Million was formerly sponsored by Ladbrokes, which is owned by the publicly traded company on the London Stock Exchange of the same name. Poker Million debuted in 2000, when it was won by John Duthie, who finished 487th in the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas. Other past Poker Million winners have included Jimmy White, Donnacha O’Dea, Tony Jones, Rajesh Modha, Hendon Mob member Joe Beevers, and Boyle Poker pro Marty Smyth. Full Tilt Poker is running a $535 buy-in direct qualifier for Poker Million on August 2nd. Real money qualifiers will also be held on August 30th, September 6th, September 13th, September 20th, and September 27th.

Each Poker Million prize package is worth $22,000, which consists of the $20,000 Poker Million buy-in plus an additional $2,000 in spending money. All players must be at least 18 years-old to be eligible. Qualifiers for the Poker Million direct satellite will also be held, although a schedule was not available at press time. Last year’s running of the Poker Million was shown on Sky Sports. Besides the winners, other final table members during past seasons have included Barny Boatman, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Andreas Hoivold, Mel Judah, Liam Flood, and Full Tilt Poker’s Howard Lederer.

Late Night Poker fans can satellite into the televised poker event on June 7th on Full Tilt. The qualifier boasts a buy-in of $322. Additional satellites will take place on June 21st, July 5th, and July 19th; each tournament will issue the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” command at 19:30 GMT. Prize package winners will take home the $10,000 buy-in to Late Night Poker plus an additional $2,000 to use for travel and accommodations.

Ulliott, who defeated Peter Evans heads-up, won Season 1 of Late Night Poker. Season 2 concluded with British poker player Simon Trumper defeating Ross Boatman. To finish off Season 3, Ultimate Bet pro and 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth defeated Adam Heller, while Hemish Shah beat Trumper to end Season 4. Irish poker player Padraig Parkinson took down Season 5, outlasting Korosh Nejad. Peter Costa was the champion of Season 6, besting Jin Cai Lin. Late Night Poker aired in the United States on Fox Sports Net, which is also home to the seventh and eighth seasons of the World Poker Tour.

Both Late Night Poker and Poker Million offer participants the opportunity to earn a share of over $1 million in prize money. A total of $18 million is up for grabs as part of FTOPS XII, which kicked off on Wednesday on the world’s second largest online poker site. The series started off in a big way, with a total of 6,275 players turning out for a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament. “URBEHIND” bested the enormous field, taking home the $191,000 first place prize. A total of 6,275 players also turned out for the inaugural tournament during FTOPS XI; consequently, Wednesday’s kick-off tournament tied for the third largest FTOPS event ever held.

In similar style to the recently-completed PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), each FTOPS event has a MiniFTOPS counterpart. The first MiniFTOPS XII event attracted a massive field of 14,059 players in a $22 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament. The winner of that contest was “LHBrazilll,” who earned $42,000 from the $281,000 total prize pool. Both the FTOPS and MiniFTOPS conclude next Sunday (May 17th) with $535 buy-in and $55 buy-in Main Events, respectively.